It all began in the early hours of December 17, 1968, when a simple lie and a knock on the door turned into a nightmare for Barbara Jane Mackle, a 20-year-old university student, known as the girl who survived three days buried alive.
An heiress to a prominent real estate family in Florida, Barbara was staying in a motel in Decatur, Georgia, enjoying a quiet night with her mother, Jane, before heading home for the holidays.
However, at 4 a.m., everything changed, and what was supposed to be a peaceful trip became a terrifying ordeal.
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Barbara Jane Mackle’s Shocking Story: The Girl Who Survived Three Days Buried Alive
It was the middle of the night when someone knocked insistently on the door. “We’re detectives! Your boyfriend has been in an accident,” a voice announced from outside.
Jane, Barbara’s mother, believed what she heard and opened the door, only to be met by the imposing figure of Gary Steven Krist, accompanied by Ruth Eisemann-Schier, a woman whose face was covered at the time.
In the blink of an eye, everything turned into a nightmare: Krist attacked Jane with a chloroform-soaked cloth, rendering her unconscious.
The horror was just beginning. Krist grabbed Barbara, who was in shock, and, pointing a gun at her, led her to a dark car. Her mother was left behind, disoriented and alone, while Barbara was dragged away to an unknown fate.
With no chance to escape and filled with terror, Barbara obeyed her captors’ orders. Krist took a photo of her holding a sign that read “KIDNAPPED,” proof he would send to her family to demand a ransom.
Krist and Eisemann-Schier drove her to a pit they had specially prepared for her. Barbara watched in horror as they made her their prisoner. The container, designed to keep her alive but immobilized, had ventilation tubes, a flashlight, water, some food, and sedatives.
Then, they sealed her in the coffin, the lid closing over her, and darkness surrounded her as the earth piled up above.
What Happened After She Was Buried Alive?
Inside the coffin, Barbara recalled those chilling moments. “I screamed and screamed,” she later wrote in her book 83 Hours Till Dawn. “The sound of the earth grew fainter until I couldn’t hear anything.”
Exhausted, she lay back in the darkness, trying to stay calm. Outside, there was only silence and the weight of the earth that kept her captive. In those first hours, confusion and fear were her constant companions.
For three days, Barbara fought to keep her sanity, counting the hours and clinging to the hope that someone would find her. Each minute felt like an eternity, her only company the faint flow of air from the tubes and memories of her family.
Meanwhile, her captors, who had planned everything in advance, demanded a $500,000 ransom from her father, Robert Mackle. To them, Barbara’s life was just a means to make money.
Robert didn’t hesitate to gather the money, ready to do anything to bring his daughter home. The first attempt at delivering the ransom failed, sparking a series of events that began to change the situation.
A mistake by the kidnappers left clues the FBI was able to follow, bringing agents closer to Barbara’s location. The FBI eventually found Krist’s abandoned car, where they discovered disturbing evidence: forged documents and the photo of Barbara with the “KIDNAPPED” sign.
When the ransom payment finally went through, the kidnappers sent coordinates to Barbara’s parents, who found her there, buried but alive.
Barbara returned to her family and chose to lead a quiet life away from the public eye, as her case had reached the ears of thousands. Her captors were apprehended sometime later, and both were sentenced to prison for their crime.
This article was originally written in Spanish by Nayely Aguilera in Cultura Colectiva.
